Great piece at WSJ about Michael Jackson and the American culture he helped create. Link. Two excerpts:
In 1991, Michael Jackson produced a video called "Black and White" for MTV and VH1, which ends with him smashing store windows, wrecking a car with a crowbar and, most famously, rubbing his crotch. Times had changed. And let us stipulate that Michael Jackson had a lot of company, not least a population looking in and wishing they could be inside the bubble, too (and they got there, with the arrival of reality TV).
The celebrity culture of narcissism ramped up, with whole TV channels dedicated to it. Girls attended junior high school dressed just like Britney or Christina. Hip-hop's home boys and ho's went from MTV videos to the street corner. American culture has always been protean, subject to change without notice, but not so fast that you couldn't get a grip. The jazz age, Sinatra, Elvis -- people learned how to live with it. By the 1990s, every envelope in sight was getting pushed, and times changed fast. Some say the 2004 election was decided by voters who thought the times had changed too fast. . .
. . . Michael may be a freak but he isn't the only freak. We live in a freaky culture. It is a culture confused about many things -- about personal behavior, about identity, about norms of any sort. It's thought to be very adult. But it's interesting that Michael Jackson, who's been driving the culture for much of the trip, ended up in a place called Neverland. Michael Jackson may indeed win and return to Neverland. But if he doesn't, the trial's last message to the culture may be: It's time to grow up.
